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Originally Posted by Torpeddo Fodder
So, I wonder how many peple there are left who still think this guy isn't a dictator
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As many as those who believe that democracy is the opposite of dictatorship, when in fact it is its cause. The magic word is vote. Tell them there was a voting and they'll buy it, even if there's fraud, even if the Executive has unlimited power over everything else. As Stalin said: "It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes".
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Originally Posted by Officerpuppy
The balance between the poor and rich in latin america is very great, there virtually is no middle class
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Latin America is a very big continent, it includes South, Central and some would like to throw in Mexico aswell. There is a middle class in virtually every country. The "balance" between poor and rich varies tremendously from country to country too.
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Originally Posted by Marcantilan
Well, Chavez is always following Castro´s advices (and Castro is not a democrat, for sure)
Sadly, this is the beginning of the end of another fragile South American democracy...
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Talk about fragility. How many constitutions did Venezuela had? 26? Is this the 27th? Sometimes it is better to respect and maintain the laws you have than to change to better ones. What good is a good law if nobody is willing to respect it or believe that they'll last no more than a few years? At least Nestor Kirchner takes advantage of the chaos in Mercosur to remain friendly but not submissive to Chavez, unlike his goons in Bolivia and Ecuador. But that's Argentina's prerogative as South America's 2nd economy. Chavez needs Argentina, especially for legitimacy, more than the reverse.
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Originally Posted by Yahoshua
I believe we have just witnessed the very means by which a democratic government will be dismantled and replaced with a dictatorship, namely ours.
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You believe wrong. Chavez is facing from 30% to 40% of opposition. Americans would reach that level in half a year of similar policies. Granted, I didn't see much rejection to Pelosi's proposal to create a public national radio station together with that law that breaks the spine of the little ones.
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Originally Posted by elite_hunter_sh3
anyone else agree here that free education and health care is THE #1 MOST IMPORTANT thing a country HAS to HAVE no matter what
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I agree. If with free education you can barely write, imagine how far you would be without it! Just kidding, you can probably write decently in Serbian or something else.
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Originally Posted by CCIP
I do agree in part: when people are in a desperate situation economically, many freedoms that a middle-class-centred society considers crucial matter little to them. Someone who promises them an even marginally better living is seen as a saviour then. This is true of my native Russia
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Venezuela was economically better off before Chavez than it is now, there were less people in desperate situations before him than there are now and unlike Russia Chavez never had unanimous support to do as he pleased, Lenin won the war and Stalin crushed whatever opposition existed, real or virtual, and that's the reason for the slow centralization of power, he must do what is possible, only as far as he can go safely, it is actually the reason why Chavez has taken this measure: Herbert Koeneke, chief of the political sciences department of University Simon Bolivar, is saying that the current surprise-escalation of authoritarianism is due to the 20% decline in the price of Oil since past August, something that "scares him [Chavez] alot". Notice how this "Lei Habilitante" was passed on congress three days after Rafael Ramírez, Oil & Energy minister, attempted to negotiate with the OPEP a cut in global Oil production to raise the price back up by 10%. Far from any planned master messianic plan, it is a desperate measure to avoid bankrupcy.
The saviour has been exposed, now it's a matter of avoiding popular insurrection and securing power, appealing to the groups that are happy to cling to the priviledges Chavez provides. Everything depending on a high Oil price.
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Originally Posted by CCIP
You can yell about it as much as you like, but I don't think a more democratic regime can even promise so much as stability in this case. In this case I'm not surprised that many poorer countries are turning to socialism; in some cases it certainly ends up a human rights wreck, but I don't think it's a fantastic deal to be democratic and with a hopelessly empoverished population, either.
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You can yell as much as you like too but it doesn't change the fact that Venezuela is empoverishing. What do you mean by "stability"? Have you seen the 2 million people protest against Chavez in the last election? The "Chavista" gangs that are taking control of Caracas, who fired against the crowd killing two and who are beginning to demand protection money like a mafia, soon to be officialized in the "Bairrista" association of Caracas? The Venezuelan economy and internal peace hanging on the price of Oil, his plan to control financial operations plummeting Caraca's stock market by 30%, destroying the retirement savings of thousands of Venezuelans, the situation is so dire Marco Aurélio Garcia from Brazil has said that the "Brazilian government will support Venezuela's industrial development, with investments, technology transfers and cooperative projects" because "Venezuela can't continue to live exclusively from Oil". What's currently being done in partnership are two refineries, one in Carabobo one in Refice, the final planning of a transcontinental gasoduct, the subway of Caracas is being financed by the Brazilian BNDES, all of this because Chavez's resources are limited to the Oil revenue and he's running short of it. The profits of the PDVSA are being eaten by the outbreak of inflation which has been out of control for a while now, so much for stability. Chavez opened the Orinoco bay to foreign companies because he lacked the money necessary to invest to pump the Oil out. Now, a few years later, after the platforms have been built, he comes to announce that he's taking control of the platforms. He "did the Lenin", just like in Baku. He wants to implement a policy of "substitution of imports". Many countries in South America attempted to implement these policies back in the 70's and some of the early 80's. It's an attempt to force the creation of national industries to replace what has to be imported. All failed, miserably. It was a complete disaster because no country ever had a fraction of the money required to do such a thing and as mentioned Chavez doesn't even have the funds to invest in the Oil industry, his source of power, let alone in the entire industry.
Venezuela has empoverished and will now lag behind without funds to construct anything but worse, it will fail to keep pace with other South American countries. A fantastic deal. No democracy, no wealth, no stability. Granted Venezuela has never been an example of democracy or stability or wealth. It does take skill to manage to worsen the situation even more, but far from unintended it is methodic: the poorer the population the more submissive it is.
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Originally Posted by joea
Anyway, let me remind you folks Chavez WAS elected....
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Elected for what? To leave office after 5 years. Nope, not anymore, he's been democratically elected to destroy the democratic institutions, to destroy democracy. Fear not joea, the time has come at last for unlimited re-elections. Let's see how many times we can say that he has been elected before raising an eyebrow. "Don't forget guys, Chavez has been elected for the 56th time, consecutive!". Not even Saddam had 100% of the congress in his hands.
However, even here the situation is changing for the worse. Chavez has announced that he will reform the "federation". Instead of city councils and provincial governments, both will be merged into new units that will not be elected, but legitimated by small assemblies. Not even 1/10th of the population will be represented nor be allowed to vote.
More later, ran out of time. It's incredible what a label can do. The guy says he's building the Socialism of the 21th century and nobody bothers checking what's going on before jumping to promised dreams.